Jazz suite for women’s choir and jazz quartet.
Performers include Women's Choir Embla, Phillip J Doyle, saxophone, Helga Kvam, piano, Stefán D Ingólfsson, bass and Halldór G Hauksson, drums, conducted by Roar Kvam.

The idea for this work was born in spring 1990 after a discussion I had with Aina Swan Cutler. I had i mind an idea, an image of something the Finnish poet Pentti Saarikoski said in his collection called Alue: “In the wind you can hear the song of extinct birds.” I gave Aina this sentence and she was very interested. And so I g that we could together create a work that begins somewhere in the distant past, travels through history, ends up in the present day and then moves into the future.

“The Song of Extinct Birds” was finished in 2002 as a commission and is dedicated to Harvard College, in memory of Henry Harrington Cutler, bird watcher par excellence.

It is a sort of “eco-cantata” with a clear ecological message. It has a strong text that takes a definite stand. It thus acquires new tones and depth.

The choir serves as the narrator but also a band of virtuoso instrumentalists. The jazz-ensemble both accompanies and improvises freely around the choir as it describes the evolution of the world.

 Composer/pianist Heikki Sarmanto (b. 1939) has long been one of the leading lights on the Finnish jazz scene. He studied at the Sibelius Academy, the Berklee College of Music in Boston and elsewhere in the 1960s and has, both alone and with his ensemble, been the receiver of many awards both in Finnland and abroad.

As a composer he is known for his eagerness to experiment with many different genres and styles, resulting in works for jazz ensembles, big bands, orchestras and opera. His large vocal output includes both solo songs and numerous works in a variety of styles for choirs of many kinds. His compositions thus frequently defy categorisation in the traditional sense.

 Aina Swan Cutler was born in the United States in 1914 to a large musical Finnish-American family. During her 25-year collaboration with Heikki Sarmanto. Ms Cutler has written dozens of original lyrics and English versions of Finnish songs. She established a Finnish Music Fund at Harvard University and, recently the Finnish Music Performance Endowment and the Jorma Hynninen Fellowship at the University of Minesota. She was awarded the Order of the White Rose by the Finnish State in 1995.